This season we are going to focus on topics that are important to library support staff. We will be discussing each of the ten competency sets in the American Library Association’s Library Support Staff Certification program. Some of these may overlap with our Library Basics series from Season Seven, but this season we will be looking specifically at the material the ALA has identified as important. We will link to the ALA’s program, if you want more information or want to sign up for one of their classes.

You can find our full show notes page here, with links to everything we discuss today.

We have talked about the three required courses in this certification program. This week we are talking about one of the competencies that is optional: Access Services. “Access Services include on-site use and the routine circulation of resources in all formats, special circulation of course-reserved or other restricted-use materials, on-site and remote reciprocal circulation with users of partner libraries, interlibrary loan, and document delivery.”

Let’s take a look at each of the 13 different components the ALA has identified as important here, and talk about a little information on each one.